Eagles baffled by Dockers’ bid to ‘borrow’ key ruckman

NEW Norfolk has scrapped a proposed deal with TSL club Burnie to release ruckman Jason Laycock to the Dockers to play in their State League clash with Lauderdale at Lauderdale oval on Saturday.

Burnie had hoped to secure Laycock’s services for a one-off appearance for his former club.

The Eagles have a bye this week- end, but club president Ben Shaw yesterday said his club had not heard from the Dockers.

“All we knew about it was that Jason Laycock had said they wanted him to play for them against Lauderdale — but we haven’t heard from Burnie at all,” Shaw said. “We are pretty annoyed. “They spoke to Jason on Sunday and they put in for a clearance on Monday morning and now it’s Wed- nesday and we are still yet to hear from them.”

Shaw said the club had made an investment in Laycock, a former Essendon, state and Burnie premiership ruckman, and wanted to ensure that if he were injured playing for Burnie, New Norfolk would be adequately compensated.

Eagles coach Matthew Smith was warm to the idea.

“But we haven’t had a phone call, email, nothing at all, which is disappointing from a TSL club,” Smith said.

“We’ve got a relationship with Glenorchy. If we were to want any of their players or they want any of our players, it’s appropriate to talk to the club before you even apply for a clearance. We’ve invested a little bit in Jason. We’ve pretty much built our team around him.

“He has been fantastic for us with his leadership and the way that he’s helped out.

“So we didn’t really want to run the risk of him being injured, or if he did get injured we wanted to make sure we’d be compensated for what we’ve already put into him.

“But we were unable to have those conversations with Burnie because they didn’t ring us.”

The deadline for a clearance passed last night.